tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post7328518858192142270..comments2024-03-28T14:16:42.371+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Is it true that Man is a primarily religious being?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-33766373480950308902017-06-08T06:52:31.797+01:002017-06-08T06:52:31.797+01:00@Kristor - It may be. Although my understanding is...@Kristor - It may be. Although my understanding is that the Romans were very religious. At any rate; not all religions sustain fertility, that is clear; religion is necessary but not sufficient. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-50097281230648904652017-06-07T21:36:22.404+01:002017-06-07T21:36:22.404+01:00I wonder whether the crash in fertility of Augusta...I wonder whether the crash in fertility of Augustan Rome - that was reversed by robust fertility among Christians and Jews - was due at root to a pervasive collapse over the preceding few centuries in pagan piety. Kristorhttps://orthosphere.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-90754588521742833772017-06-07T18:17:49.734+01:002017-06-07T18:17:49.734+01:00@David - Well, we are gods too, albeit partially; ...@David - Well, we are gods too, albeit partially; and we chose our lives, for the possibility of learning. We have direct inner knowedge of Good, and we also have the gift of Christ and the possibility of communication with deity, and other helpful spirits - if we choose to accept and ask. <br /><br />Furthermore, it is not over until it is over - and 'over' comes after biological death. <br /><br />Nonetheless, we only have one mortal life (there may have been a few exceptions, eg among the Biblical prophets; but one life does seem to be by far the norm).<br /><br />(On the other hand, these are the End Times/ Latter Days, and at some point this creation will be ended - presumably because it is doing more harm than good - but that isn't yet.)<br /><br />Taking everything into consideration (which we can't yet do, due to our imcomplete and distorted persepctive); In The End we will know that we have only ourselves to blame, we are each personally responsible. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-28957980785895380172017-06-07T17:46:29.002+01:002017-06-07T17:46:29.002+01:00And yet God continues to maintain and allow a mode...And yet God continues to maintain and allow a modern to grow and develop and into which countless new souls are born everyday! I presume he must have a reason for this? A post-religious world where (especially in the west) there are few or no genuine options to be embedded or belong to a religious group and actually most people are (presumably according to your accepted metaphysics) *placed* precisely within families or what passes as loosely resembling a family, whom are actively hostile and suspicious towards religious or non-material/spiritual ideas. Why? It seems alienation is *inevitable* and entirely unavoidable to most, perhaps even deliberately applied? <br /><br />And what chance do the new souls possibly have in such a hostile environment? Can someone truely be blamed for turning out as they invariably do in such an environmemt when they are told what to think and made to conform to the whole package of metaphysics, beliefs, values and behavioural rituals as everyone else in the modern world? If I was raised a cannibal by cannibals could you hold it against me for not knowing any better? And if I refused to eat human flesh one day what then? Would the others eat me?<br /><br />Worse still, if your theories about this mouse utopia hold true we are presumably deeply damaged physically and psychologically from the outset. Hardly a fair start is it this modern world? I have great difficulty reconciling your presumably evolutionary biology based ideas about this concept with your religious/spiritual ideas about Christianity? Could you explain it to me because it frankly has me totally baffled that on the one hand we are supposedly undergoing a mutation meltdown but then we are also *personally* responsible for the inevitable consequences on society en masse and at a smaller scale eg deviant or maladaptive behaviours? <br /><br />It seems as though one might as well blame someone for becoming disinhibited and derranged following the progression of a neurological disorder such as dementia? A material or physical cause is asserted and then swept away by the superimposition of non-physical agency being misused ie the sinfulness of the age is the fault of the diseased. As I describe it, it almost sounds like an account of an abusive parter claiming that it is really his spouses fault that he hits her! So clearly there is something wrong here either with my reasoning or with your interlocking theories of the physical mouse utopia (ie the modern world) and the overarching spiritual or metaphysical theories. How does heavenly father get to remain the loving father in the face of all this. Presumably he must and I would not wish to have it any other way either.<br /><br />David Balfourhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12099160562774064281noreply@blogger.com